I went to a very special event at a bar called the Red Wood in downtown LA. It was a marrow donor registration drive to get more South Asians registered to help the many South Asians who have a 1 in 20,000 chance of finding a matching donor. Specifically, this event was for Vinay who has only a few weeks left in which time he needs to find a match. Please visit his site to learn more. Also, please register to become a potential marrow donor. I did so a while back. It's pretty simple. You fill out a few forms, give them some samples by swabbing the inside of your mouth and that's it. Minority races in particular have a really hard time finding matches, and the best way to help, is to register yourself. Please spread the word and check out the links in this post for further information. This is a very urgent need, in order to save lives. There are many drives coming up and you can arrange your own marrow drive as well.
I did a few sketches of the musicians who donated their time to support this effort. First were Anand Subramanian and Arthi Meera. I got a chance to draw their debut performance as Fair and Kind. I also drew two members of Karmacy as well as Ananda Sen and Sim Grewall. I didn't manage to sketch DJ Yashraj and a few other accompanying musicians this time around.
Earlier in the day I caught a screening of Shonali Bosi's film Amu. Without giving the story away, it follows a young Indian woman from Los Angeles' journey back to New Delhi, India, and what she learns about herself and the 1984 massacre of Sikhs. It shines a light on a horrible crime that has gone unpunished, and hopefully people won't be blind to the parallels in so many other incidents in every country.
I think she did an amazing job of taking us through Amu's self discovery and really presenting a story that explores many aspects of a very complex issue (not only the 1984 massacre, but people's reactions towards such incidents). It was not heavy handed or overly dramatized. It touched me very deeply, and expressed so many ideas in a way that I felt, instead of telling me what to think. Anyway, go check it out!